Narrow car seats

I'm looking to replace our car seats and I'd really like to have narrow ones to allow 3 across in my Civic.

I've been looking at the Diono's because they are 17 inches wide. I'm hesitant because they are heavy and I'm not quite sure if they will fit... Any other comments about comfort or ease of adjusting straps are appreciated! Or other suggestions!

I have no idea but there's a website where tons of people have posted their experiences with different combinations of seats and cars. I think it might be http:Car Seat.Org - Carseat, Automobile & Child Passenger Safety Community Forums
Is Diono the brand that used to be Radian? If so, they are very narrow but they are also very long and a lot of people can't fit them rear-facing in a backseat in a smaller car or even in a larger car with taller adults who need to move the front seats back.

Look up the "hip room" in your back seat, then go to a local store to see how the different things fit in your car behind each seat, and then multiply the one you like by three to see if it'll fit. Also, remember that in most cars you can only use LATCH for two seats, and there's a weight limit of 40 pounds (48 pounds if your car is very new) and that includes the weight of the seat itself. Your older son might be able to move to a booster; if so, be sure to get one with a back, not backless. Backless booster seats are worthless. They don't offer any head protection at all, and there's also much greater risk that the seat belt won't fit your child properly for one reason or another.

We recently looked into getting narrow seats, since we needed to have three across and didn't want to buy a new vehicle. We went with the Diono Radians (R100) for the girls, and a Chicco KeyFit30 for the baby. In our experience, the Radians would not fit RF in either vehicle (a PT Cruiser and a Ford Escape), so we just decided to FF. DD2 was >2, so that was ok, though I would have been happy to RF her longer if possible.

They are pretty heavy, definitely not easy to transfer from one car to another. We haven't had to adjust the straps yet, since we got them fairly recently. I know your girls are old enough to FF.. are they pretty petite? Do you feel comfortable FF the little one? Unfortunately, Radians aren't carried in many stores, so you can't play with arranging them in your car. Double check on their website, though, to see if there is a retailer anywhere near you.

We'd like to ttc#3. We'd also always said we'd buy a van when we had #3 but I really don't want the extra expense of a second vehicle. We both take transit to work (drive to drop kids off then drive to station and whoever doesn't pick up the kids takes the bus home) so it feels silly to have 2 cars. I know I'd get used to a bigger vehicle but I like driving my little car! I was also thinking that when we visit family that we have to fly and normally our parents let us borrow one of their vehicles. If our seats don't fit 3 across we'd have to rent a van!

I ended up ordering a Radian for my LO. She has been FF since we visited family last year and couldn't fit her old seat RF. For my oldest we got a booster. She has been asking to be in one like her friends since she was 4. Her car seat expires this summer so I was going to replace it then with a booster seat.

My plan was to wait until later this year to do the car seat switch but a small car accident moved up the schedule!